mandymcg05
Songster
My boy Oliver was adopted as an outside cat at over a year old about 2 years ago. Last year he went missing for about a week. He had been missing for a day or two before so I tried not to worry. He showed up one morning with a broken tail/vertebrae so close to his spine it almost paralyzed him. We assumed that he was yanked by the tail. Doc said they would try to remove the tail, see if he can still walk and have full function of his bowels/rectum. My man made a full recovery with some love and patience and lots of butt wiping on my part. But ever since that week, he NEVER leaves our property or close by it. Our tail-less Ollie. He's here every morning with me feeding the chickens and ducks and every evening he waits for me to put everyone in for the night.
Fast forward to this past weekend. Oliver didn't show up Saturday morning to help me feed the chicks. I was so occupied I didn't even notice until that afternoon my husband if I'd seen him. I thought hard... No. I hadn't seen him since bed time the night before. Had a bad feeling in my gut, ya know that "mom feeling" when it's one of your kids?! Yeah, that one! I pushed it down. Kept myself occupied with the baby chicks in the brooders. That night, he didn't return for supper/bedtime. Enter sick gut again. Sunday morning I head to feed the chickens. I holler for Oliver... No sign of him. My female kitty Felicity is acting pretty strange. Obviously we had a talk about where her boyfriend went and why she wasn't bringing him home. Ugh. Cats.
Here it is Sunday. He's not eaten since Friday unless he got him some mouse hunting in on Friday night before his "accident" and Lord only knows what he's gotten into. At this point, I'm posting on all the FB groups in our county. Left a message for the local pound/humane society. My boy is gone. I told my husband that night. He's not coming home because he's dead or someone picked him up. That's it. He's gone.
Before sunrise this morning (Monday), my husband wakes me with a shake. Olive was back. He was on the porch, waiting. As soon as I flipped the light on the porch, he looked up at me with those Golden eyes and I knew he was NOT ok. From the outside, in the dark need I mind you, it looked as if he'd been in a fight. His jaw/face was swollen. He had fly larvae all over his back half of his body and he was drooling a green/slime as well as some airway obstruction. Holy Crap. WHY OLIVER! DAMMIT!
I run outside as he rolls over and starts "trying" to talk to me. He's ok. He's not but he's home. I just kept reminding myself of what I knew for sure. I suffer from severe anxiety and depression on top of that. I was low key freaking TF out right now. I picked him up. He let me, to a certain extent, and I put him in a dog crate because that boy HATES carriers. It's still dark, around 5am right now so I can't see super well. But I ran inside and got him a small bowl for water. I didn't want him sharing the old bowl with Felicity. I had no clue if he'd contracted some diseases or he was poisoned or what. When he tried to pick food up, and it dropped from his mouth I knew then something was really wrong on the inside of his mouth. I couldn't inspect too much because I knew he was in pain. So 8am we are at the vet when they open their doors. A few X-rays later, a long with my vet (she's also a friend of mine outside of the office), and we decided we would TRY to fix what was broken. He split his jaw down the center and to the side of his lower canine. Meaning that piece would need to be removed, it was too damaged for repair. He was covered in fly larvae and feces (possibly cows) and his upper canine on the R side was also broken in half and he also had some slight bruising on the underside of his R eye which is where the "impact" happened BUT to our surprise he had NO other damage that we could find. ANGEL. Our best guess is either a car side swiped him OR he was kicked by a farm animal. And after being hurt he laid up somewhere until he was able to make it home.
Our goal is to get him to where he will eat on his own and eating solids again. I know that most people would have put their animal down, but I'm going to be honest with you here. We lost a dog this year, my dad is fighting pancreatic cancer, I cannot work due too covid restrictions, I'm home schooling my kiddos which is not ideal for anyone of us, and on top of all that this happened to our FAMILY PET! When the doc told me there's a chance he could have good quality of life, even with an injury like this, I had to take that chance. I couldn't put him down knowing that we could have tried. I'm a firm believer in not letting animals suffer. This cat is so damn resilient, and stubborn, yet sweet and was ready to roll over and love on people when he woke up from anesthesia. I refuse to give up... IF THERE'S A CHANCE. IF we have to put him down because he can't eat and his quality of life is not good, then that's what I'll do. And I'll know, without a doubt, that I gave him the best life possible. And that we tried. We tried to make it work and it just wouldn't. He'll be running on the rainbow bridge at that point. But right now, right now he's alive and he's going to fight this and get better because there is NOT another choice right now.
If you're still here, thank you and I'm kinda sorry that took so long lol. I honestly just needed to get it out somehow. And I'm on here constantly since im a chicken mama and I just figured, why the hell not?!
If you believe in prayer, please pray for my Ollie. My sweet, tail-less Ollie who will now be a little jaw-less.
Fast forward to this past weekend. Oliver didn't show up Saturday morning to help me feed the chicks. I was so occupied I didn't even notice until that afternoon my husband if I'd seen him. I thought hard... No. I hadn't seen him since bed time the night before. Had a bad feeling in my gut, ya know that "mom feeling" when it's one of your kids?! Yeah, that one! I pushed it down. Kept myself occupied with the baby chicks in the brooders. That night, he didn't return for supper/bedtime. Enter sick gut again. Sunday morning I head to feed the chickens. I holler for Oliver... No sign of him. My female kitty Felicity is acting pretty strange. Obviously we had a talk about where her boyfriend went and why she wasn't bringing him home. Ugh. Cats.
Here it is Sunday. He's not eaten since Friday unless he got him some mouse hunting in on Friday night before his "accident" and Lord only knows what he's gotten into. At this point, I'm posting on all the FB groups in our county. Left a message for the local pound/humane society. My boy is gone. I told my husband that night. He's not coming home because he's dead or someone picked him up. That's it. He's gone.
Before sunrise this morning (Monday), my husband wakes me with a shake. Olive was back. He was on the porch, waiting. As soon as I flipped the light on the porch, he looked up at me with those Golden eyes and I knew he was NOT ok. From the outside, in the dark need I mind you, it looked as if he'd been in a fight. His jaw/face was swollen. He had fly larvae all over his back half of his body and he was drooling a green/slime as well as some airway obstruction. Holy Crap. WHY OLIVER! DAMMIT!
I run outside as he rolls over and starts "trying" to talk to me. He's ok. He's not but he's home. I just kept reminding myself of what I knew for sure. I suffer from severe anxiety and depression on top of that. I was low key freaking TF out right now. I picked him up. He let me, to a certain extent, and I put him in a dog crate because that boy HATES carriers. It's still dark, around 5am right now so I can't see super well. But I ran inside and got him a small bowl for water. I didn't want him sharing the old bowl with Felicity. I had no clue if he'd contracted some diseases or he was poisoned or what. When he tried to pick food up, and it dropped from his mouth I knew then something was really wrong on the inside of his mouth. I couldn't inspect too much because I knew he was in pain. So 8am we are at the vet when they open their doors. A few X-rays later, a long with my vet (she's also a friend of mine outside of the office), and we decided we would TRY to fix what was broken. He split his jaw down the center and to the side of his lower canine. Meaning that piece would need to be removed, it was too damaged for repair. He was covered in fly larvae and feces (possibly cows) and his upper canine on the R side was also broken in half and he also had some slight bruising on the underside of his R eye which is where the "impact" happened BUT to our surprise he had NO other damage that we could find. ANGEL. Our best guess is either a car side swiped him OR he was kicked by a farm animal. And after being hurt he laid up somewhere until he was able to make it home.
Our goal is to get him to where he will eat on his own and eating solids again. I know that most people would have put their animal down, but I'm going to be honest with you here. We lost a dog this year, my dad is fighting pancreatic cancer, I cannot work due too covid restrictions, I'm home schooling my kiddos which is not ideal for anyone of us, and on top of all that this happened to our FAMILY PET! When the doc told me there's a chance he could have good quality of life, even with an injury like this, I had to take that chance. I couldn't put him down knowing that we could have tried. I'm a firm believer in not letting animals suffer. This cat is so damn resilient, and stubborn, yet sweet and was ready to roll over and love on people when he woke up from anesthesia. I refuse to give up... IF THERE'S A CHANCE. IF we have to put him down because he can't eat and his quality of life is not good, then that's what I'll do. And I'll know, without a doubt, that I gave him the best life possible. And that we tried. We tried to make it work and it just wouldn't. He'll be running on the rainbow bridge at that point. But right now, right now he's alive and he's going to fight this and get better because there is NOT another choice right now.
If you're still here, thank you and I'm kinda sorry that took so long lol. I honestly just needed to get it out somehow. And I'm on here constantly since im a chicken mama and I just figured, why the hell not?!
If you believe in prayer, please pray for my Ollie. My sweet, tail-less Ollie who will now be a little jaw-less.
I dearly hope he pulls through.
thank you!!! I appreciate it so much!
